Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
This weekend is family weekend at Niagara University and my parents had plans to come up and partake in the activities and events planned. On Wednesday my dad ended up down in Virginia for business. He wouldn’t be able to make the flight up, so I said why I don’t just come down. After a little debate, and price checking I quickly ruled out flying, and my trusted friend Amtrak came through with low fares. Of course I’d be spending nearly as much time on trains as I was at home, but that didn’t seem like a problem to me 
.
My luck continued when on Thursday night a business class seat opened up, and a quick call secured my first AGR upgrade since making Select. Friday morning came and went after a couple classes, then around 11:45 I made way to the Niagara Falls train station. When I arrived the train was already in the station and customs was still working on clearing everyone. I realized that was in fact no quik-trak machine inside the Niagara station even though I could have sworn I saw one last year. Amazingly when I went to the ticket agent to print my tickets he didn’t ask me for my Select Coupon! I could hardly believe my luck.
Around noon customs was finished and the station agent called business class for boarding. We were actually able to board directly from the station which has a very tiny high level platform that requires a bridge plate for safe boarding. There were 3 people already onboard and 7 others boarded with me. I was able to get a single seat on the left side with no problem. Although I knew the sun would be long gone by the time we reached the banks of the Hudson River East of Albany.
We pulled out of Niagara Falls right on time, and I was amazed at how poor the track that the Maple Leaf uses was. I understand that only 2 trains a day use the track, but my goodness even at 5 miles an hour we were rocking and rolling quite a bit. The track conditions on the CSX mainline luckily are much better. We made it a couple of miles before being held for about 15 minutes because of track work.
Onboard I found a copy of the system timetable and I have to say I really like it. The pages inside are pretty much the same, but the binding makes it seem so much more official. It’s bound like a book or thick catalog. It seems like it will hold up better in my bag then the previous timetables where I’ve had the cover fall off. I’m not sure why they decided to change it, but I’m sure glad they did. It also showed a quik-trak machine in Niagara Falls, so maybe I missed it?
We finally made it Buffalo Exchange Street after getting caught up in slow orders. I honestly wasn’t keeping track of our time keeping, so I’m not sure how much time we lost. We then rolled through downtown Buffalo past the old NYC Buffalo Central Terminal. I really would love to get a tour of the areas that are usually closed off to the public, but from what it looks like outside I think you’d need a hard hat and a good pair of boots.
After we pulled out of Buffalo-Depew I went forward to get a couple bottles of water. I guess there were a lot of hungry people onboard because the café was jammed. The LSA was moving as quickly as he could, and was very friendly. It took almost 20 minutes to get my water. I have only seen a café that busy 1 other time, and that was on an evening regional to Boston. I was quite happy to see such a demand for food service, and such a heavy passenger load. I know there would be quite a bit of politics standing in the way, but I’d be nice to see more trains west of Albany, and food service on trains that terminate in Albany. Hey I can dream right? Personally I’d love to see an overnight departure out of Niagara Falls that would bring to NYC in the morning.
As we pulled into Rochester I saw a lull in the café car, and got lunch. I had the pizza which was just like it was the last time I had it :lol: . We arrived in to Rochester where there was a decent crowd waited to board. After Rochester we rolled on through Western New York. The cell signal was good, so I jumped online and spent the time looking at things online.
When we arrived into Syracuse we were only 6 minutes down, so I guess we made up all the time we lost in Buffalo. From that point forward I spent most of the time reading “Rival Rails The Race To Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad” by Walter R. Borneman which I consider to be an excellent read, if you have any interest in the building of Western railroads. We made stops in Utica and Rome, and I admit I wasn’t paying too much attention.
Somewhere before Amsterdam I noticed we had come up on a CSX stack train. What ensued was one of the best “train races” I have ever witnessed. It was similar to an Acela trying to overtake an NJT local around Elizabeth where speed restrictions don’t give anyone a clear advantage and you end up running side by side. Except we were trying to overtake a train that was I would say was easily a couple thousand feet. We were going between 45 and 55 the whole time each time gaining and losing a few car lengths each time. We kept this up for over 10 minutes until we began going 60 and a couple minutes later we passed the lead locomotive. I’m not sure how many others were paying attention, but I was certainly enjoying slowly overtaking such a long train.
Well anyway things have taken quite a turn! What you read above was written pretty much as it happened. After we made our station stop in Amsterdam I was thinking boy this report is pretty dull I wonder if I should even publish it. Of course things got very interesting! At 6:10 the conductor came on the PA and said he was told by the dispatcher there was a, “an immense” fire close to the tracks in an old warehouse right by the bridge. We would be coming to a stop in a siding and wait for more information.
Well an hour went by and there was still no new information. I found some news articles about the fire and it was clear things weren’t going to get better anytime soon. So we sat in limbo with no clear indication of what would be happening to us. I was thinking bustitution since they could just use another train set from Albany to bring us to New York. After sitting there for over an hour I began to search the internet for some kind of information from Amtrak. The only thing I could find was a couple “tweets” from people on the Adirondack that they were stopped in Schenectady and 1 bus was taking passengers to Albany. Maybe someone knows more?
At any rate I decided to go get something to eat since it was becoming impossible to tell how long we’d be stuck. This turned out to be a very wise decision as the café car was quickly running low on just about everything.
Around 7:45 it was confirmed that we would be detouring to Albany where the train would make all of its regular stops to New York City. Our crew died soon after that, and Amtrak brought in a relief crew around 8:15 PM. They promised us that we would soon be on our way, and made it sound like the CSX Pilot crew was also onboard. This turned out to be false, and the Amtrak crew had no idea when the pilot crew would even show up.
I spent some time speaking with assistant conductor, and he let me take a look at the employee timetable, and track map for the Selkirk Subdivision that we would be detouring over. I had a good time talking with him, and was amazed he was so friendly. I returned to my seat and began to tackle what I would do when I finally got New York City. It was clear I would miss every NJT train out of NYP. For awhile it looked like if I took PATH to Newark I could stay with someone there, but that soon faded. I spoke with my mom and she agreed she would pick me up at 3:37 AM at Metropark. I made my reservation over the phone where the agent assured me I know had a guaranteed connection between the 2 trains.
I went back to the café car where the line stretched into the first coach. I wasn’t too hungry, but waiting in line was something to do. I got a couple snacks and some water. That AGR upgrade coupon began to mean more and more to me.
Finally at 10:30 on the dot I heard our horn sound and the train lurched forward. We were finally making some kind of progress! Even it was only going to be for a few miles to pick up our long awaited pilot crew. They said once we got to the detour it would take an hour to get to Albany then they would need at least 20 minutes for the power change, and finally 2 and half hours to New York. It looked like a 2 AM arrival would be a best case scenario.
The detour was taken slow. It was dark out, but the highlight for me at least was running through a real hump yard. I had never seen one in operation before. It was quite surreal to watch as cars were rolling by themselves toward the various tracks. All kinds of different cars were rolling around all on their own. It was quite impressive to see IMHO.
After making it over the river we came to a stop in a town called Niverville. From here things got a little fuzzy as I couldn’t hear the radio the whole time, but we rolled past some Amtrak equipment. That was train 283 which is supposed to arrive in Niagara Falls at 11:30PM here it was still on the East Side of the Hudson River!! Then over the radio I heard train 49 say something! Then both trains were referred to as 366? I couldn’t tell if that meant they combined the two trains or what. Either way our assistant conductor got off the last car, and got either 283 or 49 I am not sure. After the AC got off we sat around for quite some time. Then I heard something really bizarre the AC of 283 (the one who got off our train) was asked by head end of 49 to conduct a brake test. Then the conductor came over the PA and informed us trains 283 and 49 would be coupled together and all 3 trains would head to Albany together! Wow the force of a P42 coupling up to you is quite a jolt. I can’t imagine how this is going to work if/when we ever make it Albany.
At 12:35AM the three trains finally began to move forward. Well for a moment then we began moving “backwards” The Maple Leaf at least is facing the opposite direction of travel, I guess were the tail end of this super train. At any rate it looks like its about 8 miles before we arrive in Albany-Rensselaer. Where I am sure some extremely interesting switching will take place. I can’t believe it looks like I might actually miss my connection with train 67. It’s the NEC sweep train, and I’m going to be too late to catch even it! Hopefully with my new guaranteed connection status Amtrak will do something for me.
Well we arrived in to Albany Rensselaer at 1:01 AM 5 and 54 minutes late. The super train I had envisioned was nothing more than a P42 coupled behind us one Amfleet coach, and another P42. I have no idea what really happened with all that switching around earlier. I stepped outside for a couple minutes, and then returned to my seat. The café was giving away free water and boxes of cookies to all passengers.
We pulled out of Albany Rensselaer at 1:15 AM and I was beginning to question my connection with train 67. Since its roughly 2 and a half hours to New York from Albany meaning we’d be due in around 4 AM. Our engineer did quite an amazing job of trying to make up some time. He was running hot at 83 miles an hour the whole run to Hudson, NY. We got there in 19 minutes instead of the published 25.
We made it to Rhinecliff at 2:25 AM it was clear that I would miss my connection with train 67 the question now became what do I do? I called Amtrak and a nice agent swapped my reservation for train 67 to train 121. Which leaves New York Penn Station at 5:45 AM I guess it was the best solution since the ride to Metropark is much shorter on Amtrak then waiting an extra 20 minutes and taking a local Coastline train to Little Silver.
We arrived in Poughkeepsie at 2:55 AM. Where about a dozen people got off as we pulled out of Poughkeepsie it was official I missed train 67! I was mildly amused by this fact. I was so late I missed the late night sweet train that was the late night/early morning connector for quite a few Northeast trains. Today Amtrak, CSX, and a warehouse in Albany would have other plans for me. They never dimmed the lights so many people like me were still up even though it was 3 in the morning.
We arrived in Croton-Harmon at 3:45 AM. Where 2 doors opened but I don’t think a single person got on or off. I fell asleep for most of the ride into the city. I woke up just as we crossed into Manhattan where I began to pack everything up and await our arrival into Penn Station.
We ran through the semi-underground tunnel that would lead us to Penn Station, and after a quite harrowing journey we arrived in New York Penn Station, at 4:35 AM. That’s right folks we were 7 hours and 5 minutes late arriving into New York Penn Station!
I’ve been in Penn Station at 1 AM and 6 AM but have never had the pleasure of experiencing it between those hours. I know consider myself lucky to have avoided such a fate until now. The station was quite interesting to say the least. I soon found out that the ticket agents don’t start until 5:10 AM, so I would have to wait to see if I could get a ticket on train 121. I waited in the Amtrak seating area until around 5:15 then made my way to a ticket agent. She was very nice, and couldn’t believe how late we ended up being. She got me on 121 and for a price much lower than I had expected. I thanked her and returned to the seating area. Around 5:30 I headed out to the main concourse to try and get a leg up on the boarding process. When they called the train for boarding I laughed to myself as a whooping 20 or so people began heading toward track 14. I train 121 isn’t quite as popular as the 5 PM Acela to Washington :lol: . I took a seat, and we pulled out right on the money at 5:45 AM.
I got a text from Piotr (NJCoastExp) that he was also on the corridor, and our trains passed at Newark Airport. I ended up being 2 minutes early into Metropark where my mom was waiting. After a 25 minute drive down an empty Garden State Parkway I was finally home!
It was a most interesting experience and although there was a 4 hour span of sitting in the same spot I enjoyed the trip. My question is do I contact Amtrak Customer Service? While the cause of the delay was not their fault a 7 hour delay is quite a long time.
Thank you for reading!
I don’t have any photos to share.
.My luck continued when on Thursday night a business class seat opened up, and a quick call secured my first AGR upgrade since making Select. Friday morning came and went after a couple classes, then around 11:45 I made way to the Niagara Falls train station. When I arrived the train was already in the station and customs was still working on clearing everyone. I realized that was in fact no quik-trak machine inside the Niagara station even though I could have sworn I saw one last year. Amazingly when I went to the ticket agent to print my tickets he didn’t ask me for my Select Coupon! I could hardly believe my luck.
Around noon customs was finished and the station agent called business class for boarding. We were actually able to board directly from the station which has a very tiny high level platform that requires a bridge plate for safe boarding. There were 3 people already onboard and 7 others boarded with me. I was able to get a single seat on the left side with no problem. Although I knew the sun would be long gone by the time we reached the banks of the Hudson River East of Albany.
We pulled out of Niagara Falls right on time, and I was amazed at how poor the track that the Maple Leaf uses was. I understand that only 2 trains a day use the track, but my goodness even at 5 miles an hour we were rocking and rolling quite a bit. The track conditions on the CSX mainline luckily are much better. We made it a couple of miles before being held for about 15 minutes because of track work.
Onboard I found a copy of the system timetable and I have to say I really like it. The pages inside are pretty much the same, but the binding makes it seem so much more official. It’s bound like a book or thick catalog. It seems like it will hold up better in my bag then the previous timetables where I’ve had the cover fall off. I’m not sure why they decided to change it, but I’m sure glad they did. It also showed a quik-trak machine in Niagara Falls, so maybe I missed it?
We finally made it Buffalo Exchange Street after getting caught up in slow orders. I honestly wasn’t keeping track of our time keeping, so I’m not sure how much time we lost. We then rolled through downtown Buffalo past the old NYC Buffalo Central Terminal. I really would love to get a tour of the areas that are usually closed off to the public, but from what it looks like outside I think you’d need a hard hat and a good pair of boots.
After we pulled out of Buffalo-Depew I went forward to get a couple bottles of water. I guess there were a lot of hungry people onboard because the café was jammed. The LSA was moving as quickly as he could, and was very friendly. It took almost 20 minutes to get my water. I have only seen a café that busy 1 other time, and that was on an evening regional to Boston. I was quite happy to see such a demand for food service, and such a heavy passenger load. I know there would be quite a bit of politics standing in the way, but I’d be nice to see more trains west of Albany, and food service on trains that terminate in Albany. Hey I can dream right? Personally I’d love to see an overnight departure out of Niagara Falls that would bring to NYC in the morning.
As we pulled into Rochester I saw a lull in the café car, and got lunch. I had the pizza which was just like it was the last time I had it :lol: . We arrived in to Rochester where there was a decent crowd waited to board. After Rochester we rolled on through Western New York. The cell signal was good, so I jumped online and spent the time looking at things online.
When we arrived into Syracuse we were only 6 minutes down, so I guess we made up all the time we lost in Buffalo. From that point forward I spent most of the time reading “Rival Rails The Race To Build America’s Greatest Transcontinental Railroad” by Walter R. Borneman which I consider to be an excellent read, if you have any interest in the building of Western railroads. We made stops in Utica and Rome, and I admit I wasn’t paying too much attention.
Somewhere before Amsterdam I noticed we had come up on a CSX stack train. What ensued was one of the best “train races” I have ever witnessed. It was similar to an Acela trying to overtake an NJT local around Elizabeth where speed restrictions don’t give anyone a clear advantage and you end up running side by side. Except we were trying to overtake a train that was I would say was easily a couple thousand feet. We were going between 45 and 55 the whole time each time gaining and losing a few car lengths each time. We kept this up for over 10 minutes until we began going 60 and a couple minutes later we passed the lead locomotive. I’m not sure how many others were paying attention, but I was certainly enjoying slowly overtaking such a long train.
Well anyway things have taken quite a turn! What you read above was written pretty much as it happened. After we made our station stop in Amsterdam I was thinking boy this report is pretty dull I wonder if I should even publish it. Of course things got very interesting! At 6:10 the conductor came on the PA and said he was told by the dispatcher there was a, “an immense” fire close to the tracks in an old warehouse right by the bridge. We would be coming to a stop in a siding and wait for more information.
Well an hour went by and there was still no new information. I found some news articles about the fire and it was clear things weren’t going to get better anytime soon. So we sat in limbo with no clear indication of what would be happening to us. I was thinking bustitution since they could just use another train set from Albany to bring us to New York. After sitting there for over an hour I began to search the internet for some kind of information from Amtrak. The only thing I could find was a couple “tweets” from people on the Adirondack that they were stopped in Schenectady and 1 bus was taking passengers to Albany. Maybe someone knows more?
At any rate I decided to go get something to eat since it was becoming impossible to tell how long we’d be stuck. This turned out to be a very wise decision as the café car was quickly running low on just about everything.
Around 7:45 it was confirmed that we would be detouring to Albany where the train would make all of its regular stops to New York City. Our crew died soon after that, and Amtrak brought in a relief crew around 8:15 PM. They promised us that we would soon be on our way, and made it sound like the CSX Pilot crew was also onboard. This turned out to be false, and the Amtrak crew had no idea when the pilot crew would even show up.
I spent some time speaking with assistant conductor, and he let me take a look at the employee timetable, and track map for the Selkirk Subdivision that we would be detouring over. I had a good time talking with him, and was amazed he was so friendly. I returned to my seat and began to tackle what I would do when I finally got New York City. It was clear I would miss every NJT train out of NYP. For awhile it looked like if I took PATH to Newark I could stay with someone there, but that soon faded. I spoke with my mom and she agreed she would pick me up at 3:37 AM at Metropark. I made my reservation over the phone where the agent assured me I know had a guaranteed connection between the 2 trains.
I went back to the café car where the line stretched into the first coach. I wasn’t too hungry, but waiting in line was something to do. I got a couple snacks and some water. That AGR upgrade coupon began to mean more and more to me.
Finally at 10:30 on the dot I heard our horn sound and the train lurched forward. We were finally making some kind of progress! Even it was only going to be for a few miles to pick up our long awaited pilot crew. They said once we got to the detour it would take an hour to get to Albany then they would need at least 20 minutes for the power change, and finally 2 and half hours to New York. It looked like a 2 AM arrival would be a best case scenario.
The detour was taken slow. It was dark out, but the highlight for me at least was running through a real hump yard. I had never seen one in operation before. It was quite surreal to watch as cars were rolling by themselves toward the various tracks. All kinds of different cars were rolling around all on their own. It was quite impressive to see IMHO.
After making it over the river we came to a stop in a town called Niverville. From here things got a little fuzzy as I couldn’t hear the radio the whole time, but we rolled past some Amtrak equipment. That was train 283 which is supposed to arrive in Niagara Falls at 11:30PM here it was still on the East Side of the Hudson River!! Then over the radio I heard train 49 say something! Then both trains were referred to as 366? I couldn’t tell if that meant they combined the two trains or what. Either way our assistant conductor got off the last car, and got either 283 or 49 I am not sure. After the AC got off we sat around for quite some time. Then I heard something really bizarre the AC of 283 (the one who got off our train) was asked by head end of 49 to conduct a brake test. Then the conductor came over the PA and informed us trains 283 and 49 would be coupled together and all 3 trains would head to Albany together! Wow the force of a P42 coupling up to you is quite a jolt. I can’t imagine how this is going to work if/when we ever make it Albany.
At 12:35AM the three trains finally began to move forward. Well for a moment then we began moving “backwards” The Maple Leaf at least is facing the opposite direction of travel, I guess were the tail end of this super train. At any rate it looks like its about 8 miles before we arrive in Albany-Rensselaer. Where I am sure some extremely interesting switching will take place. I can’t believe it looks like I might actually miss my connection with train 67. It’s the NEC sweep train, and I’m going to be too late to catch even it! Hopefully with my new guaranteed connection status Amtrak will do something for me.
Well we arrived in to Albany Rensselaer at 1:01 AM 5 and 54 minutes late. The super train I had envisioned was nothing more than a P42 coupled behind us one Amfleet coach, and another P42. I have no idea what really happened with all that switching around earlier. I stepped outside for a couple minutes, and then returned to my seat. The café was giving away free water and boxes of cookies to all passengers.
We pulled out of Albany Rensselaer at 1:15 AM and I was beginning to question my connection with train 67. Since its roughly 2 and a half hours to New York from Albany meaning we’d be due in around 4 AM. Our engineer did quite an amazing job of trying to make up some time. He was running hot at 83 miles an hour the whole run to Hudson, NY. We got there in 19 minutes instead of the published 25.
We made it to Rhinecliff at 2:25 AM it was clear that I would miss my connection with train 67 the question now became what do I do? I called Amtrak and a nice agent swapped my reservation for train 67 to train 121. Which leaves New York Penn Station at 5:45 AM I guess it was the best solution since the ride to Metropark is much shorter on Amtrak then waiting an extra 20 minutes and taking a local Coastline train to Little Silver.
We arrived in Poughkeepsie at 2:55 AM. Where about a dozen people got off as we pulled out of Poughkeepsie it was official I missed train 67! I was mildly amused by this fact. I was so late I missed the late night sweet train that was the late night/early morning connector for quite a few Northeast trains. Today Amtrak, CSX, and a warehouse in Albany would have other plans for me. They never dimmed the lights so many people like me were still up even though it was 3 in the morning.
We arrived in Croton-Harmon at 3:45 AM. Where 2 doors opened but I don’t think a single person got on or off. I fell asleep for most of the ride into the city. I woke up just as we crossed into Manhattan where I began to pack everything up and await our arrival into Penn Station.
We ran through the semi-underground tunnel that would lead us to Penn Station, and after a quite harrowing journey we arrived in New York Penn Station, at 4:35 AM. That’s right folks we were 7 hours and 5 minutes late arriving into New York Penn Station!
I’ve been in Penn Station at 1 AM and 6 AM but have never had the pleasure of experiencing it between those hours. I know consider myself lucky to have avoided such a fate until now. The station was quite interesting to say the least. I soon found out that the ticket agents don’t start until 5:10 AM, so I would have to wait to see if I could get a ticket on train 121. I waited in the Amtrak seating area until around 5:15 then made my way to a ticket agent. She was very nice, and couldn’t believe how late we ended up being. She got me on 121 and for a price much lower than I had expected. I thanked her and returned to the seating area. Around 5:30 I headed out to the main concourse to try and get a leg up on the boarding process. When they called the train for boarding I laughed to myself as a whooping 20 or so people began heading toward track 14. I train 121 isn’t quite as popular as the 5 PM Acela to Washington :lol: . I took a seat, and we pulled out right on the money at 5:45 AM.
I got a text from Piotr (NJCoastExp) that he was also on the corridor, and our trains passed at Newark Airport. I ended up being 2 minutes early into Metropark where my mom was waiting. After a 25 minute drive down an empty Garden State Parkway I was finally home!
It was a most interesting experience and although there was a 4 hour span of sitting in the same spot I enjoyed the trip. My question is do I contact Amtrak Customer Service? While the cause of the delay was not their fault a 7 hour delay is quite a long time.
Thank you for reading!
I don’t have any photos to share.
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